I found the ensuing discussion informative and enlightening. For example, to see McGill Guide citation noted as a “wish we’d/they’d/I’d learned” skill after first-year LRW surprised me. I regularly see first-year students with both confidence and competence with the McGill style during and after LRW. Perhaps, as with much else, citation confidence and knowledge erodes as its relative emphasis diminishes over time.

Instruction in US and Commonwealth research was also discussed. I do remember this content in my own first-year LRW learning, and I wonder of other schools also now instead offer it in upper-year optional advanced legal research courses.

Another idea was to front-load writing instruction to provide context for research. At present our program follows this approach to a good extent, as did my own LRW learning.

The comments also highlight to me the different approaches schools take to LRW instruction. I’m sure many different approaches can be equally effective. Likewise, it seems the value of regular thought about techniques, content evolution, and fresh ideas are the only constant.

I’d like to reiterate the question Dean Brooks posed and ask one more: Is there anything lawyers and professors wish their students had learned in first-year LRW?